ISAIAH CHAPTER 30

They had vexed Gods Holy Spirit and turned to Egypt for help. Foreign aid was sent to Egypt and when Pharaoh’s army came to help defend Jerusalem they simply returned to Egypt—their help amounted to no help—she was a “do nothing” utterly useless helper. The prophet calls Israel a lying faithless brood of evildoers who tried to get their prophets to prophesy delusions. Every effort was made to shut the prophets up. Their disposal of the word caused God to let this bunch of reprobates go into captivity. War came and they were left like a flag pole without a flag. However, God is still holding out hope for them when they come to their senses. While in exile they will eat the bread of adversity and drink the water of affliction. Finally repentance takes hold and they throw away their images of silver and get right with God. He restores them to their homeland and blesses them beyond their dreams.

EXPOSITION TO ISAIAH CHAPTER 30

1Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:

The scriptures make it plain that this people had from day one been rebellious. This stiff-necked self-willed generation of people who resisted the Holy Ghost was bent on a plan that was not sanctioned by the Eternal-—they were weaving a treaty with Egypt.

2That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!

Trusting in Egypt for military aid against the Assyrians was as futile as the U.S. looking to the U.N. We have the words “IN GOD WE TRUST” on our coins, but reluctantly we seek help from other sources.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT INDORSE THE TEXT:

Isa 31:1 Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD! Read: Isa 36:6; Deu 28:68; Jos 9:14

3Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.

Putting their trust in Egypt will bring disappointment and humiliation. Egypt was the reluctant dragon or the crockadile of the Nile..

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT MAKE THE CASE:

Isa 30:5-7 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still. Read: Isa 20:5; Jer 37:5-9; Rom 10:11

4For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.

Zoan in the North and Hanes in the South─their help will amount to nothing. They were trusting in a broken reed. We learned in chapter 19 that her princes were fools.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT CARRY WEIGHT REGARDING THE TEXT:

Hos 7:11-12 Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria. When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard. Read: Isa 19:11; Eze 30:18; Isa 20:5-6; Isa 31:1-3

5They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.

The leaders that had looked for help but found none would be ashamed that they trusted in a people that brought them nothing but disappointment. The Egyptians were all a sorry lot.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES THAT

GIVE AUTHORITIVE DATA TO THE TEXT:

Jer 2:36 Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria. Read: Isa 31:1-3

6The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.

The donkeys and camels were all laden with foreign aid—treasures to pay for Egypt’s help—trusting in Egypt was the ruin of Israel.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT CONFIRM THE TEXT:

Deu 8:15 Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; Read: Jer 11:4; Num 21:6; 2Ch 28:21-23

7For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.

“To Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing.” (NIV)

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES THAT

GIVE COUNTEREVIDENCE TO THE TEXT:

Isa 31:3 Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.

Lam 3:26It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

8Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:

This writing still stands as an indictment of Israel’s unbelief. God does not leave himself without witness. In time to come they will claim that “you never told us.”

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT VERIFY THE TEXT:

Job 19:23-24 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! Read: Isa 8:1; Jer 51:60; Hab 2:2

9That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:

This rebellious─apt at deceiving─faithless brood─seed of evildoers they wanted nothing to do with the prophet’s word.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT SHED LIGHT ON THE TEXT:

Isa 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

Deu 31:27 For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?

10Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

They wanted the prophets to prophesy delusion─ they preferred lies to truth and sought every means to shut them up. They plotted assassinations, prisons and death to silence them.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT SPEAK VOLUMES ABOUT THE TEXT:

1Ki 21:20 And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the LORD. Read: 1Ki 22:8; 2Ch 24:19; Jer 26:20-23

11Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

Since they despised the word of God and put their trust in wile and guile, God will give them over to a reprobate mind to do as they pleased and send a foreign nation to feed them on the bread of adversity and the water of affliction.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT SPEAK VOLUMES ABOUT THE TEXT:

Isa 29:21 That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.

Amo 7:13 But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court. Read: Rom 1:28-30

12Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:

The prophets spared no words in describing their perverted mind set.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT BEAR OUT THE TEXT:

Isa 5:24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Read: 2Sa 12:9-10; Isa 28:15

13Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.

Isaiah warns them that the calamity that is about to come upon them is like a bulging wall that will come crashing down upon them. In his fury and anger God will come crashing down on them.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT RATIFY THE TEXT:

1Ki 20:30 But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and there a wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand of the men that were left. And Benhadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner chamber. Read: Eze 13:10-15; Pro 29:1

14And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.

When God finishes with them, they will be like a broken pitcher—not one piece big enough to carry coals from a fire- place or dip water from a spring.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT ARE CONCLUSIVE AND FINAL:

Psa 2:9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Read: Jer 19:10-11; Deu 29:20

15For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.

God sought repentance and returning to him but they would have “none of it”.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT ATTEST TO THE TEXT:

Jer 23:36 And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man’s word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God. Read: Isa 7:4; Isa 32:17

16But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES THAT

PRESENT OVERWHELMING PROOF OF THE TEXT:

Isa 31:1 Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD! Read: Amo 2:14-16

17One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.

When you hear the war-cry, one of them will chase a 1,000 of you. You will be scattered like a flock of ducks in gun season. You will be like a lonely tree on a mountain, like a flagpole on a hill.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES THAT

ESTABLISH THE CERTAINTY OF THE TEXT:

Lev 26:8 And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

Lev 26:36 And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. Read: Deu 32:30; Isa 1:7-8; Zec 13:8-9

18And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

Nevertheless the LORD will wait that he may show his grace to you. You will be blessed if you wait for him.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT DEMONSTRATE THE TEXT:

Rom 9:15-18 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

19For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.

Weep no more! The LORD will hear your cry and answer you —the remnant will return and dwell in Zion.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT LEND EVIDENCE TO THE TEXT:

Jer 50:4-5 In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.

20And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:

While in exile they had bread in scarcity and water in allowance —your teacher will no longer be hidden away in some remote corner but your eyes will look to him for guidance.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT INDORSE THE TEXT:

1Ki 22:27 And say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.

Psa 80:5 Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure. Read: Psa 74:9; Amo 8:11-12

21And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

If you stray from the path you will hear a voice (from your comrades) saying get back on the path and follow the right way.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES THAT

CARRY WEIGHT REGARDING THE TEXT:

Isa 35:8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. Read: Isa 42:16 ; Isa 48:17; Isa 58:11; Psa 25:8; Psa 143:8-10; Pro 3:5-6; Jer 6:16; 1Jn 2:27; Psa 32:8

22Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.

You will throw away the graven images like dirty rags —you will say good riddance.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES THAT

GIVE AUTHORITIVE DATA TO THE TEXT:

Isa 2:20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; Read: 2Ch 31:1; Eze 18:6

23Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.

In that day the ground will be fertile—abundance of rain—plenty of corn—abundance of cattle.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT CONFIRM THE TEXT:

Isa 44:2-4 Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.

Psa 65:9 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.

24The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.

The oxen and young asses that have plowed the ground and prepared the soil will eat grain that has been made free from waste by the harvest process of shovel and fan.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT GIVE COUNTER EVIDENCE

TO THE TEXT:

1Co 9:9-10 For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

25And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

In the day when God brings great slaughter to your enemies he will bring streams of water on every high hill—the flat tops of mountains, the coves and steep hill, deserts and wilderness would once again bring forth trees, and abundance of crops. When the towers fall probably refers to the siege towers or water towers in the enemy cities.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT VERIFY THE TEXT:

Isa 43:19-20 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.

26Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

In the day when God stepped in and destroyed Israel’s enemies— when he bound up their bruises and healed their wounds it was like the light of seven days.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT SHED LIGHT ON THE TEXT:

Isa 24:23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

Amo 9:11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:

27Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:

God came from the far reaches of heaven and was ticked-off—he was furious—burning with anger and his lips and tongue was like a devouring fire.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT SPEAK VOLUMES ABOUT THE TEXT:

Deu 32:22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. Read: Psa 18:7-9; Psa 79:5; Nah 1:5-6; Heb 12:29

28And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.

God was pouring out his wrath like a stream overflowing its banks—he then changes the metaphor and likens it to a sieve that removes the chaff from the grain and then gives us a third metaphor of a bridle in the jaws causing them to be led to their doom. The sieve was a large instrument, somewhat like a shovel, with a long handle, with which they tossed the corn mixed with the chaff and chopped straw into the air, that the wind might separate the chaff from the grain. When the wind wasn’t blowing they used people with fans to blow the chaff away.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT BEAR OUT THE TEXT:

Isa 11:4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. Read: 2Th 2:8; Luk 22:31; Heb 4:12; Rev 2:16

29Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.

Gods people will have a song to sing—like the ones sung at great celebrations—or as a trumpet player leading one on a pilgrimage.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT RATIFY THE TEXT:

2Ch 20:27-28 Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for the LORD had made them to rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the LORD. Read: Isa 2:20; Deu 32:31

30And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.

Verses 27-33 are poetry—and in this verse he describes the voice, the arm and the extent of God’s anger and ways that he destroys his enemies.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT ARE CONCLUSIVE AND FINAL:

Isa 29:6 Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. Read: Rev 14:16-19; Isa 28:2; Luk 1:51; Psa 18:13-14

31For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.

God is going to shatter the Assyrian’s—185,000 died in one night and the remaining soldiers returned to Ninevah.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT ATTEST TO THE TEXT:

Isa 37:33-38 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

32And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.

After God smote them—when the battle was over they celebrated the victory with tabrets and harps and singing.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURESTHAT

PRESENT OVERWHELMING PROOF OF THE TEXT:

Psa 81:1-2 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of Asaph. Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. Read: Hag 2:22

33For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

Old Moloch (the Assyrian god) is going to be burned on a pile of wood.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES THAT

ESTABLISH THE CERTAINTY OF THE TEXT:

2Ki 23:10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. Read Jer 7:31-32